Orcas Can Say ‘Hello’, ‘Bye-Bye’ and ‘One-Two-Three’

Orcas can say ‘hello’, ‘bye-bye’ and ‘one-two-three’, while the voice doesn’t make a perfect mimicry, but sounds impressively identifiable.

Researchers have first time scientifically demonstrated the orcas, which are usually known as ‘killer whales’. According to the research team, the discovery of orcas can say ‘hello’, ‘bye-bye’ and ‘one-two-three’ is helpful in studying different pods of savage killer whales that ended up with specific dialects, focusing on the idea that they can be the result of replica between orcas.

Jose Abramson, a researcher from the Complutense University of Madrid told while describing the experiment published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal on Wednesday that, “We were not expecting a perfect match, like a parrot.

A female, 16 years old orca, Wikie at the marine park in Antibes is now able to say ‘hello’, ‘bye-bye’, ‘Amy’ and also can count up to three, shriek along with the ability of blowing raspberries. Such sounds were made by Wikie when she was partly flooded by her blowhole, which is a human equivalent for a nose bared in the air.

Jose Abramson said in a statement that, “It was hard not to jump for joy when Wikie first ‘spoke’. When we tried ‘hello’ and she did the sound… some emotional responses came from the trainers. For us (the scientists) it was very difficult not to say anything. One of the main things that fired the evolution of human intelligence is the ability to have social learning, to imitate, and to have culture.”